JP2010226360A - Data transmission protocol control method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data transmission protocol control method and apparatus capable of shortening a communication time. <P>SOLUTION: The present invention relates to a data transmission protocol control method, for controlling data transmission between a contactless IC card and a reader/writer, wherein, when continuously transmitting a plurality of blocks from a transmitting side to a receiving side, the number of blocks to be transmitted continuously to a block, that is first transmitted, is included in transmission data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to data transmission protocol control between a reader / writer that performs communication using electromagnetic waves and a non-contact IC card.

  Regarding data transmission protocol control between a reader / writer that uses electromagnetic waves as a conventional communication medium and a non-contact IC card, the international standard of Non-Patent Document 1 is widely known.

ISO / IEC (International Organization For Standardization / International Electro technical Commission) 14443-4

  In the data transmission protocol control by the block format after the anti-collision sequence (activation) defined in the international standard, a response on the receiving side with respect to a transmission command or a response is required. For this reason, there has been a problem that communication time is longer than necessary.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a data transmission protocol control method and apparatus capable of shortening the communication time.

  The present invention for solving the above-described problems is a data transmission protocol control method for controlling data transmission between a contactless IC card and a reader / writer, wherein a plurality of blocks are continuously transmitted from the transmission side to the reception side. In this data transmission protocol control method, the number of blocks to be transmitted continuously to the first block to be transmitted is included in transmission data.

  The present invention also provides a data transmission protocol control device that is mounted on a non-contact IC card and a reader / writer and controls data transmission between the two, and continuously transmits a plurality of blocks from the transmission side to the reception side. In this case, the data transmission protocol control device includes block number setting means for including the number of blocks to be transmitted continuously in the transmission data.

  According to the data transmission protocol control method and apparatus of the present invention, the communication time can be shortened.

Schematic which shows the structure of a non-contact IC card. The block diagram which shows the structure of IC chip. The figure which shows the structure of a transmission block. The figure which shows the scenario of the data transmission protocol control between the conventional reader / writer and a non-contact IC card. The figure which shows the scenario of the data transmission protocol control between the reader / writer of this Embodiment, and a non-contact IC card.

[First embodiment]
Non-contact IC cards are widely used in areas related to daily life, such as entry / exit management and railway ticket gates. For example, in a railway ticket gate, a non-contact IC card exchanges information about getting on and off, etc. by supplying power and exchanging signals with a reader / writer provided in an automatic ticket gate.

  Since the non-contact IC card does not need to be brought into contact with the reader / writer, the non-contact IC card is excellent in operability, for example, it can be read by an automatic ticket checker without taking out a commuter pass from the case.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a non-contact IC card.
The non-contact IC card 100 is made of plastic or the like, and an IC chip 101 is embedded in the card. The non-contact IC card 100 is excellent in environmental resistance because the surface is covered with plastic or the like and no metal terminal is provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the IC chip 101.
The IC chip 101 includes a ROM 201, a RAM 202, a nonvolatile memory 203, a CPU 204, and an input / output interface 205.

  The CPU 204 performs calculation, control, etc., and controls the IC chip 101 in an integrated manner. The ROM 201 is a read-only memory. The ROM 201 stores basic software such as an operating system (OS), application programs, and data. The RAM 202 is used as a work area in the processing of the CPU 204.

  The non-volatile memory 203 is a rewritable non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM or a flash memory, and is normally used as a user work area, a program area, or the like. The input / output interface 205 is an interface that realizes communication with a reader / writer (not shown).

  The reader / writer transmits a command to the IC chip 101. The CPU 204 of the IC chip 101 performs processing corresponding to the command received from the reader / writer and transmits the result as a response to the reader / writer.

Next, a communication protocol (protocol) between the IC chip 101 and the reader / writer will be described.
After the non-contact IC card 100 is activated, information is exchanged with the reader / writer according to a predetermined communication protocol. At this time, a command is transmitted and transmitted from the reader / writer, and a response is transmitted and returned from the non-contact IC card 100 repeatedly.

  As a communication protocol, for example, in block transmission in which information is transmitted in block units, an I (information) block, an R (reception confirmation) block, and the like are defined.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a transmission block.
The transmission block includes a head field, an information field, and a last field. Information for controlling a transmission protocol such as information for controlling transmission and information for checking an error is stored in the first field and the last field. The information field stores the contents of application information and status information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a scenario of data transmission protocol control between a conventional reader / writer and the non-contact IC card 100. In FIG.
Between the reader / writer and the non-contact IC card 100, the maximum frame length (bytes) that can be transmitted and received at a time is determined. FIG. 4 shows a signal exchange procedure in the case where data exceeding the maximum frame length is transmitted in the activated state.

The symbols used in FIG. 4 are defined as follows.
PCD is an abbreviation for Proximity Coupling Device and represents a reader / writer.
PICC is an abbreviation for Proximity Card, and represents the non-contact IC card 100.
I (1) x is an I-block with chaining, and the block number is x.
I (0) x is an I-block without chaining, and the block number is x.
R (ACK) x is R-block of reception OK, and the block number is x.
Note that chaining is a function defined by ISO / IEC 14443-4, and is used when data exceeding the maximum frame length is transmitted.

  In step 1, the PCD sends an I (information) block. The PICC tries to return the corresponding information, but the data length of the information exceeds the maximum length of the frame.

  Therefore, the PICC divides the information into, for example, three transmission blocks, and in step 2, transmits an I (information) block storing the first divided data to the PCD. At this time, the PICC sets, in the first field, information (with chaining) indicating that this block is a divided block and is related to the next transmission block.

  In step 3, the PCD transmits an R (reception confirmation) block indicating reception OK (ACK) to the PICC. In step 4, the PICC transmits an I (information) block storing the divided second data to the PCD. At this time, the PICC sets, in the first field, information (with chaining) indicating that this block is a divided block and is related to the next transmission block.

  In step 5, the PCD transmits an R (reception confirmation) block representing reception OK (ACK) to the PICC. In step 6, the PICC transmits an I (information) block storing the last divided data to the PCD. At this time, the PICC sets information (no chaining) indicating that this block is not related to the next transmission block in the first field.

  When the PCD receives the final data, it combines the divided data to generate the original information, and executes a predetermined process based on the original information. In step 7, an I (information) block storing a response to the first data transmission is transmitted to the PICC. In step 8, the PICC sends an I (information) block for response end to the PCD.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a scenario of data transmission protocol control between the reader / writer and the non-contact IC card 100 according to the present embodiment.
In step S1, the PCD transmits an I (information) block. The PICC tries to return the corresponding information, but the data length of the information exceeds the maximum length of the frame.

  Therefore, the PICC divides the information into n transmission blocks, and transmits an I (information) block storing the first divided data to the PCD in step S2. At this time, the PICC sets, in the first field, information (with chaining) indicating that this block is a divided block and is related to the next transmission block. Then, the division number n is stored in the information field.

  In step S3, the PICC transmits an I (information) block storing the next data divided after the elapse of a predetermined time to the PCD. At this time, the PICC sets, in the first field, information (with chaining) indicating that this block is a divided block and is related to the next transmission block. In transmission after the second division, data related to the division number n is not stored in the information field.

  Thereafter, the PICC sequentially repeats the I (information) block storing the data divided after a predetermined time and transmits it to the PCD. Note that the above-mentioned predetermined time is shorter than a waiting time (FWT: Frame Waiting Time), which is a time for time-out determination determined in the initial state between the PCD and the PICC.

  In step S (n + 1), the PICC transmits an I (information) block storing the last divided data to the PCD. At this time, the PICC sets information (no chaining) indicating that this block is not related to the next transmission block in the first field.

  When the PCD receives the final data, it combines the divided data to generate the original information and executes a predetermined process. In step S (n + 2), an I (information) block storing a response to the first data transmission is transmitted to the PICC. In step S (n + 3), the PICC transmits a response end I (information) block to the PCD.

  As described above, when the PICC receives an I block from the PCD and returns a plurality of consecutive n I (information) blocks to the PCD, the I block is sequentially returned in order. At this time, the first I block includes data indicating that n I blocks are continuously transmitted. Therefore, the PCD transmits the R block of reception OK to the PICC only for the n last I blocks sent from the PICC. The PICC returns an I block to the PCD as a response thereto.

  Therefore, as compared with the conventional data transmission protocol control scenario, it can be seen that the number of times the R block of the reception OK is transmitted to the PICC is greatly reduced.

  In FIG. 5, a plurality of I blocks are transmitted from the PICC to the PCD. However, the data transmission protocol control system according to the embodiment of the present invention has a plurality of I blocks from the PCD to the PICC regardless of the transmission direction. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to the case of transmitting.

  It should be noted that the functions described in the above embodiments are not limited to being configured using hardware, but can be realized by causing a computer to read a program describing each function using software. Each function may be configured by appropriately selecting either software or hardware.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage.
Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

    DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... IC card, 101 ... IC chip, 201 ... ROM, 202 ... RAM, 203 ... Nonvolatile memory, 204 ... CPU, 205 ... Input / output interface.

Claims (6)

In a data transmission protocol control method for controlling data transmission between a contactless IC card and a reader / writer,
A data transmission protocol control method characterized in that, when a plurality of blocks are continuously transmitted from the transmission side to the reception side, the number of blocks to be transmitted continuously is included in the transmission data.   The receiving side recognizes the number of blocks transmitted continuously from the first received block, and then returns a response to the transmitting side only for the last block of the plurality of blocks transmitted continuously. The data transmission protocol control method according to claim 1.   3. The data transmission protocol control method according to claim 2, wherein information indicating that the block is related to the next transmission block is included in each block except for the last block of the plurality of blocks transmitted continuously. . In a data transmission protocol control device that is mounted on a non-contact IC card and a reader / writer and controls data transmission between the two,
Data comprising block number setting means for including, in transmission data, the number of blocks to be transmitted continuously after the first block to be transmitted when a plurality of blocks are continuously transmitted from the transmission side to the reception side Transmission protocol controller. A block number recognition means for recognizing the number of blocks transmitted continuously from the first received block when receiving a plurality of blocks continuously;
5. The data transmission protocol control according to claim 4, further comprising: response reply means for returning a response to the transmitting side only for the last block of the plurality of blocks transmitted continuously thereafter. apparatus.   Claiming further comprising chaining setting means for setting information indicating that each block other than the last block of the plurality of blocks transmitted in succession is related to the next transmission block. Item 6. The data transmission protocol control device according to Item 5.

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